A substrate contains a predetermined number of substrate locations on which respectively one semiconductor chip is mounted. The processing is typically accomplished in such a manner that in a first step at the dispensing station a portion of adhesive is dispensed to each substrate location of the substrate. The substrate is then transported to the bonding station and the semiconductor chips are applied. There are now applications in which several thousand small semiconductor chips are mounted on each substrate. The number of substrate locations can be so large that even at a very high throughput rate (UPH=units per hour) the automatic mounting apparatus requires a time for providing all the substrate locations of the substrate with adhesive that is longer than the so-called “dwell time” or “dry out time” of the adhesive. The dwell time specifies for a certain adhesive how long the maximum time between the application of the adhesive and the placement of the semiconductor chip may be without quality problems occurring. The problem is specifically that a skin forms on a portion of adhesive applied to a substrate location in the course of time which skin negatively influences the behaviour of the adhesive during the mounting of the semiconductor chip. This problem is circumvented nowadays either by providing only a portion of the substrate locations with adhesive and then fitting with semiconductor chips and passing the substrate several times through the die bonder until all the substrate locations are fitted with semiconductor chips or by arranging the dispensing station and the bonding stations as close as possible to one another so that the application of adhesive to one substrate location and the placement of the semiconductor chip thereon can take place with a shorter time delay. These solutions have various disadvantages.